![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/DSCN4276.jpg\")
<\/a>Chris Vannoy, recognized by his squinched-up face, piercing eyes and trademark black cowboy fedora, is their leader. He\u2019s also the emcee for their readings and their unofficial poet laureate.<\/p>\n
Vannoy\u2019s sidekick is Alex Bosworth, known for telling non-stop stories and being blessed with the energy of Kerouac\u2019s hyped-up character Jack Cassidy. Together they steward a new Beat movement of social and artistic provocateurs that has put San Diego on the poet\u2019s map.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a calling,\u201d Vannoy said. \u201cI like performance. I like poetry. I like being on stage because it frees me. I am generally shy but when I go on stage I come alive, like going on automatic pilot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Something wounded me with a poet\u2019s scar<\/i><\/p>\n
Like a werewolf\u2019s bite half healed\u00a0 <\/i>\u2013 Chris Vannoy<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a cross between Shakespeare, Poe, and Carl Sandburg, and there are a lot of Biblical references in my work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But it isn\u2019t all about the art of performance for Vannoy. He has a social agenda, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to hear me,\u201d he said. \u201cI want them to react. I want to make people think. There are a lot of things wrong with our society that we need to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vannoy\u2019s chief concern is the homeless. He talks about them often in his poetry and even invites them to stay at his home in South Park, because, \u201cWe are supposed to help others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vannoy has been recognized for his writing efforts, winning a San Diego Book Award for best book of poetry one year and he took second place another year. He has read for Quincy Troupe\u2019s events and won many poetry contests, including a $500 prize for one at the La Paloma Theater in Encinitas. He was even a vocalist at one time for the band Wormhole.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been famous,\u201d Vannoy said. \u201cBut fame is fleeting. I\u2019d be even better but I started 20 years too late!\u201d<\/p>\n He is also interested in personal relationships \u2013 the pangs and pains and joys of love \u2013 and had his own personal muse for a time. The woman encouraged him to write and even saved and compiled the poetry he wrote about her over the years. She recently died and he said her passing has caused his inspiration to write to dry up, so he\u2019s been switching to the visual arts more and more.<\/p>\n Born in Kansas, Vannoy grew up in National City and studied theater and puppetry but later went into computer science. Today he is an inspector for Solar Turbines by day, a beat poet by night. Raised in the First Baptist Church, he believes that everyone is redeemable.<\/p>\n \u201cI try to listen to people,\u201d he said. \u201cI try not to judge them. I try to see the good in them and not just what is wrong with them.\u201d<\/p>\n Bosworth\u2019s main concern is \u201cman\u2019s fall from grace in the natural world.\u201d He likes to write about how we all have become alienated and disenfranchised from our once deep connection with nature.<\/p>\n Bosworth grew up in San Carlos and later studied literature, film and media in college. The \u201ccultureless\u201d neighborhood of his childhood is the topic of his current book project, \u201cThe Mayonnaise Jungle.\u201d He\u2019s also published a book of short stories and amusing antedotes called \u201cChip Chip Chaw.\u201d<\/p>\n For many years Bosworth said he drank a bottle of bourbon a day. It finally caught up to him, and after a nine-month hospital stay and a liver transplant, he now takes 22 pills per day to keep his body from rejecting the new liver.<\/p>\n \u201cI am lucky to be alive and grateful that I am,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While Vannoy is generally serious and more of a poet, his co-conspirator is quite talkative and funny and more of a storyteller. Bosworth almost always has a story going and will tell them to whoever will listen, but is known to go off on tangents in a hundred different directions.<\/p>\n \u201cI like confabulation,\u201d Bosworth said. \u201cSure I will take you off track but we will end up in some interesting places! \u2026 I love to get high off laughter. I used to get high off booze but since I stopped drinking it\u2019s laughter that keeps me sane.\u201d<\/p>\n Two years ago Bosworth met his wife Tracy on Facebook.<\/p>\n \u201cAlex is incredibly brilliant,\u201d Tracy said. \u201cHe\u2019s on stage 24\/7. He is always creating and it\u2019s contagious. If you spend time with him and you will become a better writer.\u201d<\/p>\n You can hear these two characters and a whole cast of like-minded others at the following monthly poetry readings: First Sunday of the month from 5\u20137 p.m. at the Youth Hostel located at 521 Market St., Downtown. Third Tuesday of the month 7\u20138:30 p.m. at Rebecca\u2019s Coffee House, located at 3015 Juniper in South Park.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>